Giorgio Monti

The proposed Directive to strengthen National Competition Authorities (NCAs) is important for upgrading the powers of NCAs, but it is frustrating for assuming that the Commission’s procedures are superior: have we nothing to learn from good practices and procedures in some Member States, which could be deployed across the EU? Furthermore, while we should welcome a requirement for agency independence (even if this might re-ignite a discussion on whether a European cartel office is the logical corollary to NCA independence), why not also stimulate NCAs to engage in advocacy so as to remove restrictive regulations? Finally, the Directive continues the trend to harmonise EU competition enforcement, but real decentralised enforcement remains the exception: can we move from joint discussion within the European Competition Network to joint decisions by teams of NCAs?

Giorgio Monti, Professor of Competition Law, Head of the Law Department, European University Institute